Africa, Asia and Eastern Mediterranean 2012 and 2013

ecords for statistical purposes.
57. Potential country actions:
a. Establish a representative and functioning multi-sectoral committee responsible
for CRVS coordination;
b. Hold regular and productive meetings of the national CRVS coordination
committee;
c. Assign to the national CRVS coordination committee, oversight of the
implementation of the multi-sectoral national action plan; and
d. Issue regular updates on improvement progress.
58. Regional support activities:
a. Promote the establishment of a national coordination structure or mechanism comprised of
key institutions and stakeholders of the civil registration and vital statistics system;
b. Provide technical advisory services to support country efforts in strengthening coordination;
c. Through the regional platform, identify, review and compile good practices in the coordination
of civil registration and vital statistics functions, and facilitate the exchange of good practices in
coordination mechanisms, documentation and online/offline dissemination;
d. Through meetings of the Regional Steering and Coordination Group and interim support from
the Regional Support Office, coordinate and cooperate on on-going and planned activities
among relevant development partners involved in the Regional Strategic Plan; and
e. Through periodic reports from the Regional Support Office, ensure that countries are informed
of and actively contribute to the coordination of capacity-building activities.
OUTCOME H: USE OF VITAL STATISTICS
Increased technical capacity of countries in the region to effectively use vital
statistics
59. High quality, standards-based registration of vital events enables the production of reliable and
complete vital statistics, which support national and local decision-making across a range of social and
economic sectors to facilitate evidence-based policy. 29 The contribution of vital statistics to evidence-based
decision-making is dependent upon is timely dissemination and appropriate uptake by the relevant decisionmakers.
60. Potential country actions:
a. Include vital statistics derived from civil registration systems in national
statistical, health and development plans for planning and monitoring purposes;
b. Make available in the public domain, within one year of the end of the reporting
year, the reports of numbers and distribution of total births and deaths by age
and sex;
29 The United Nations Principles and Recommendations for Vital Statistics states that the compilation of vital statistics should have as its
ultimate minimum goal: (a) the provision of total monthly or quarterly summary counts of live births, deaths, foetal deaths,
marriages and divorces on a time schedule prompt enough to provide information for decision-making in health and
population programmes; and (b) the production of detailed annual tabulations of each type of vital event cross-classified by its
demographic and socio-economic characteristics. Source: UNSD, 2001, Principles and Recommendations for a Vital Statistics System , Revision 2 , para. 62, U N
publication, Sales No. 01.XVI.10, available at .
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